Khanty 03: Good day for the Chinese

by Alejandro Ramirez
4/11/2014 – It was a good day for both of the Chinese players in Khanty-Mansyisk. Zhao Xue took advantage of a major blunder by Stefanova in a drawn endgame to take the full point. Meanwhile Hou Yifan crushed Dzagnidze with a wonderful attack and it is the second game in a row in which she wins in less than 25 moves. Not only that, she currently has the lead by a full point...

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

The fourth stage of the the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series 2013-2014 is taking place at the Ugra Chess Academy, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from the 8th of April until the 22nd of April 2014. It is a twelve-player round robin with time controls of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, with 30 minutes plus an additional 30 seconds per move for the rest of the game. The total prize fund is 60,000, with the winner getting 10,000 Euro.

Round Three

Round 03 – April 11 2014, 14:00h
Ushenina, Anna 2501
½-½
Kosteniuk, A 2527
Zhao Xue 2552
1-0
Stefanova, A 2489
Girya, Olga 2450
½-½
Muminova, Nafisa 2321
Muzychuk, Anna 2560
½-½
Lagno, Kateryna 2543
Hou Yifan 2618
1-0
Dzagnidze, Nana 2550
Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496
½-½
Tuvshintugs, B 2340

The Ugra Chess Academy is always home to local youth playing the King's Game

Ushenina, Anna ½-½ Kosteniuk, Alexandra
The Orthodox variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined is usually a quiet and positional affair. This game definitely did not go that way and the position was very messy for many moves. Ushenina's positional pressure seemed to hinder Kosteniuk's attempts to attack the kingside and it seems that the Ukrainian must have had a winning shot at some point or another, exploiting the awkward placement of Black's knights. However she missed her opportunity and the game ended in a dramatic draw.

Kosteniuk had some problems during the game but managed the draw in the end

The ex-World Champion, Anna Ushenina, has one loss, one win and one draw

Zhao Xue 1-0 Stefanova, Antoaneta
A very strange game. Zhao Xue manage to get an advantage from the opening by stifling her opponent's counterplay and retaining her positional advantages, but her play afterwards allowed Stefanova to activate her pieces powerfully. The Bulgarian missed a precise continuation that might even have started to swing the game in her favor, but instead she lost a pawn and ended up in a difficult endgame. Eventually this difficult endgame turned hopeless as Zhao Xue slowly but surely converted her extra pawn... only to blunder her advantage again! Stefanova reached a book drawn rook endgame, but she blundered majorly missing the following:

Stefanova blundered half a point in the first game due to bad
endgame technique, and today she blundered another half point for the same reason

[Event "Women's FIDE GP 2014"] [Site "Khanty-Mansiysk"] [Date "2014.04.11"] [Round "3"] [White "Zhao Xue"] [Black "Stefanova, Antoaneta"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D30"] [WhiteElo "2552"] [BlackElo "2489"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez, Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/4k3/R5K1/7P/8/8/8/5r2 w - - 0 66"] [PlyCount "9"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [EventCountry "RUS"] 66. Ra7+ Kf8 $4 (66... Ke6 $1 {is a draw, as I'm sure Karsten Muller would be delighted to show in his Endgame Magic show on playchess.com}) 67. Ra8+ $1 Ke7 68. h6 Rg1+ 69. Kf5 $1 {Stefanova must have forgotten that now White's pawn does not need the help of the king to advance, as Black's awkward king position does the job for her.} Rf1+ 70. Ke5 (70. Ke4 $4 Rf8 $11) (70. Ke5 Re1+ 71. Kd4 Rd1+ 72. Ke3 Re1+ 73. Kd2 Rh1 74. h7 {and Black cannot stop the pawn, unless she sacrifices a whole rook. Tragic, truly.}) 1-0

Zhao Xue is second with two wins and one loss

Girya, Olga ½-½ Muminova, Nafisa
White's Opening pressure paid off as Girya won a pawn, but it was not for free. Black had insufficient compensation for the missing foot soldier but she retained drawing chances as her pieces were rather active. Girya underestimated her opponent's position with the move 33.g3? with exposed her king to an unusual tactic that Muminova exploited perfectly. This newfound counterplay forced a repetition and the game ended in a draw, which is not what Girya wanted.

A wonderful resource by the player from
Uzbekistan allowed her to draw down a pawn

The press conferences have had a very friendly tone,
the players freely sharing their ideas

Muzychuk, Anna ½-½ Lagno, Kateryna
Muzychuk's experiment in the Sicilian gave Lagno no trouble at all. Black equalized easily, traded off all the pieces and obtained a comfortable draw.

A smile before the battle, though today Lagno
didn't have problems holding Muzychuk to a draw

Hou Yifan 1-0 Dzagnidze, Nana
Black's dubious plan of mixing ideas in the Maroczy Kan seems strange at best, but it was apparently home preparation according to Dzagnidze's comments in the press conference after the game. She underestimated White's play and Hou Yifan obtained a crushing attack that she finished off in style:

A confident Hou Yifan is a point ahead of the field

[Event "Women's FIDE GP 2014"] [Site "Khanty-Mansiysk"] [Date "2014.04.11"] [Round "3"] [White "Hou Yifan"] [Black "Dzagnidze, Nana"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B41"] [WhiteElo "2618"] [BlackElo "2550"] [Annotator "Robot 9"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "3r1rk1/2qnbp1p/pp2p1p1/2p1P3/2P1BP2/1P5Q/PB4PP/R4R1K b - - 0 19"] [PlyCount "10"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [EventCountry "RUS"] 19... b5 $2 {Too naive.} (19... Rfe8 {was more solid, but White is still in control:} 20. Qg3 $16) 20. f5 $1 {Powerful and precise. Black cannot allow this pawn to go to f6 so the intruder must be taken.} exf5 21. Rxf5 Qb6 (21... gxf5 22. Qxf5 {leads to unstoppable mate in a few moves as h7 cannot be defended.}) (21... f6 {was by far the most tenacious.} 22. Raf1 $1 gxf5 23. Bxf5 Rf7 24. e6 $18 {is very ugly but this was as good as it got for Black.}) 22. Qh6 $1 {now White threatens Rh5. In some lines the move e6 also comes into play.} gxf5 23. e6 Nf6 (23... f6 24. Bxf5 {and against the weakness of h7 tells.}) 24. Qg5+ (24. Bxf6 Bxf6 25. Bxf5 {was also possible.}) 1-0

Dzagnidze unsure of what went wrong today

Kosintseva, Tatiana ½-½ Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg
Wihte's solid approach in the Spanish paid off as Black's position was riddled with weaknesses, and the more the position opened up the more glaring it was that Tuvshintugs was going to be unable to hold on to all her pawns. However in time pressure Konsintseva was unable to accurately fend off her opponent's threats, and she allowed too much counterplay. The Mongolian player exploited this perfectly and she never let Kosintseva have the advantage again.

Round Three Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Standings

Photos by Nikolay Bochkarev, from the official website

Schedule and results

Round 01 – April 9 2014, 14:00h
Stefanova, A 2489
½-½
Kosteniuk, A 2527
Ushenina, Anna 2501
1-0
Muminova, Nafisa 2321
Zhao Xue 2552
1-0
Lagno, Kateryna 2543
Girya, Olga 2450
1-0
Dzagnidze, Nana 2550
Muzychuk, Anna 2560
1-0
Tuvshintugs, B 2340
Hou Yifan 2618
1-0
Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496
Round 02 – April 10 2014, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, A 2527
0-1
Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496
Tuvshintugs, B 2340
0-1
Hou Yifan 2618
Dzagnidze, Nana 2550
½-½
Muzychuk, Anna 2560
Lagno, Kateryna 2543
1-0
Girya, Olga 2450
Muminova, Nafisa 2321
1-0
Zhao Xue 2552
Stefanova, A 2489
1-0
Ushenina, Anna 2501
Round 03 – April 11 2014, 14:00h
Ushenina, Anna 2501
½-½
Kosteniuk, A 2527
Zhao Xue 2552
1-0
Stefanova, A 2489
Girya, Olga 2450
½-½
Muminova, Nafisa 2321
Muzychuk, Anna 2560
½-½
Lagno, Kateryna 2543
Hou Yifan 2618
1-0
Dzagnidze, Nana 2550
Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496
½-½
Tuvshintugs, B 2340
Round 04 – April 12 2014, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, A 2527   Tuvshintugs, B 2340
Dzagnidze, Nana 2550   Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496
Lagno, Kateryna 2543   Hou Yifan 2618
Muminova, Nafisa 2321   Muzychuk, Anna 2560
Stefanova, A 2489   Girya, Olga 2450
Ushenina, Anna 2501   Zhao Xue 2552
Round 05 – April 14 2014, 14:00h
Zhao Xue 2552   Kosteniuk, A 2527
Girya, Olga 2450   Ushenina, Anna 2501
Muzychuk, Anna 2560   Stefanova, A 2489
Hou Yifan 2618   Muminova, Nafisa 2321
Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496   Lagno, Kateryna 2543
Tuvshintugs, B 2340   Dzagnidze, Nana 2550
Round 06 – April 15 2014, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, A 2527   Dzagnidze, Nana 2550
Lagno, Kateryna 2543   Tuvshintugs, B 2340
Muminova, Nafisa 2321   Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496
Stefanova, A 2489   Hou Yifan 2618
Ushenina, Anna 2501   Muzychuk, Anna 2560
Zhao Xue 2552   Girya, Olga 2450
Round 07 – April 16 2014, 14:00h
Girya, Olga 2450   Kosteniuk, A 2527
Muzychuk, Anna 2560   Zhao Xue 2552
Hou Yifan 2618   Ushenina, Anna 2501
Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496   Stefanova, A 2489
Tuvshintugs, B 2340   Muminova, Nafisa 2321
Dzagnidze, Nana 2550   Lagno, Kateryna 2543
Round 08 – April 17 2014, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, A 2527   Lagno, Kateryna 2543
Muminova, Nafisa 2321   Dzagnidze, Nana 2550
Stefanova, A 2489   Tuvshintugs, B 2340
Ushenina, Anna 2501   Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496
Zhao Xue 2552   Hou Yifan 2618
Girya, Olga 2450   Muzychuk, Anna 2560
Round 09 – April 19 2014, 14:00h
Muzychuk, Anna 2560   Kosteniuk, A 2527
Hou Yifan 2618   Girya, Olga 2450
Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496   Zhao Xue 2552
Tuvshintugs, B 2340   Ushenina, Anna 2501
Dzagnidze, Nana 2550   Stefanova, A 2489
Lagno, Kateryna 2543   Muminova, Nafisa 2321
Round 10 – April 20 2014, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, A 2527   Muminova, Nafisa 2321
Stefanova, A 2489   Lagno, Kateryna 2543
Ushenina, Anna 2501   Dzagnidze, Nana 2550
Zhao Xue 2552   Tuvshintugs, B 2340
Girya, Olga 2450   Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496
Muzychuk, Anna 2560   Hou Yifan 2618
Round 11 – April 21 2014, 11:00h
Hou Yifan 2618   Kosteniuk, A 2527
Kosintseva, Tatiana 2496   Muzychuk, Anna 2560
Tuvshintugs, B 2340   Girya, Olga 2450
Dzagnidze, Nana 2550   Zhao Xue 2552
Lagno, Kateryna 2543   Ushenina, Anna 2501
Muminova, Nafisa 2321   Stefanova, A 2489

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register